The Monday Hangover: Tuesday Edition

For beer-heads, the pursuit of the perfect ale is expeditionary by design. One wants—nay, needs—to be among the first to plant his flag in some new bottleneck because, unlike an expertly concocted cocktail which can be replicated ad infinitum, many of the world’s best brews, like this Traquair Jacobite Ale, suffer from limited distribution.

Cooked up at Traquair House, the oldest inhabited building in Scotland, the ale is based on an 18th-Century recipe that was revived in 1995 to celebrate the semiquincentennial (250th anniversary) of the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion; the flavor is as complex as the history. Spiced with coriander, the beer is strongly aromatic and surprisingly light given it’s hefty 8% A.B.V. It’s both woody and slightly fruity, with a lingering finish that leaves you craving the next sip, as I discovered early one Sunday afternoon at Eulogy, a Belgian tavern/gastro pub in Philly’s Old City.

All of the Traquair House ales (Jacobite is one of three) are brewed in a traditional fashion that involves uncoated, centuries-old wooden fermentation vats—the same oak vessels that were employed in the 1700s but fell into disuse around the turn of the 19th Century. So while this ancient process is virtually mimic-proof, annual production is fid at a scant 600 to 700 barrels--about 200,000 bottles--only 40% of which ever leave Scotland. The trick, therefore, is to find yourself a bottle.—Rafi Kohan

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